TUC votes to reiterate opposition to increased defence spending and build on ‘Wages Not Weapons’ campaign
Delegates passed a UCU motion to build a vision for security "based on decent work, quality public services, equality, climate action, democracy and peace"
Trade unionists have been gathering in Brighton this week for the annual TUC Congress. At the Congress, delegates have been debating and agreeing the trade union movement’s positions on key political and economic issues.
On the final day, delegates supported a motion proposed by the University and College Union (UCU) to build an alternative vision for security “based on decent work, quality public services, equality, climate action, democracy and peace”. The motion called on the TUC to build on the ‘Wages Not Weapons’ campaign, which calls for investment in public services, rather than defence spending.
This is the second year in a row a motion on this issue has been debated at TUC Congress. In 2025, delegates backed the UCU’s original Wages Not Weapons motion, which called for the TUC to ‘prioritise campaigning for public investment in Britain’s public realm’, to ‘commit to a safe, liveable planet’, and to ‘reaffirm that our movement’s priority is welfare and wages, not weapons and war’.
As with last year, this year’s motion was highly contentious, prompting a heated debate in the hall. Alongside UCU, delegates from the National Education Union (NEU) and RMT spoke in favour of the motion. Unite, GMB and Prospect delegates were among those to speak against the motion.
Unlike last year, however, the motion did not go to a ‘card vote’, and the chair deemed it to have been clearly carried within the room.
The motion called for the trade union movement to “campaign for sustained public investment in health, education, housing, social care, social security and climate resilient”, instead of further investment in defence.
Alongside this, the motion called for the TUC to “raise awareness of fundamental rights, including the right to conscientious objection and opposition to compulsory military service in the UK”, and “work with the ITUC, ETUC and other partners to promote conflict prevention, diplomacy, international cooperation, human rights and respect for international law”.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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